


Home

by Daily



Series: A bond of family [22]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cake, Conversations, Family, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-07
Updated: 2013-11-07
Packaged: 2017-12-31 18:56:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daily/pseuds/Daily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A unexpected question leads to an interesting conversation and an even more interesting result. No pairing other than friendship. Rated T to be safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. If I did Sirius, Remus, Fred and Dobby would never have died.
> 
> Warnings: Character OOC-ness.
> 
> It is not written as slash, but if you wish to see it that way, be my guest. I am a firm slash supporter so I will not tolerate any bashing on that part.
> 
> I am aware that some things don’t really make sense in the line of the books, but I like it so ignore that Harry didn’t find some things out before the end of OotP.
> 
> This takes place the summer when Harry reaches Grimmauld Place and stayed there.

In retrospect it was surprising that no one had ever asked the question before. Sure, people were aware of it, but no one had ever asked him about the why.

But it did surprise Harry that it was Sirius of all people who remembered enough of the event to ask the question.

You’d think he had enough other things on his mind while escaping Azkaban to let that little fact slip his mind.

Not that Harry had even realised the man knew anything about it in the first place; the whole thing had completely slipped his mind once the initial fear of being expelled had passed.

How was he supposed to know his godfather would remember it?

Biting back a snort as he looked up into the bemused warm grey eyes of his godfather he took a sip of his tea.

“Well?” Sirius raised a single eyebrow at him in expectation, while beside him Remus shifted in his seat, his green eyes also focused on Harry.

Unable to sleep Harry had left his shared bedroom with Ron earlier and had walked in on the two men softly conversing at the kitchen table.

His initial reaction of turning back had been shot down as they had both welcomed him to join them.

After some probing to see if he was all right the three had settled to drink a nice cup of tea and after some small talk the question had come out of nowhere, completely catching Harry of guard.

“Why do you want to know?” Harry swallowed.

Amused Sirius looked at him. “Because I have always wondered about it. I just never had the opportunity to ask you about it before now.”

“I had no idea you even remembered it.”

Chuckling Sirius smiled. “Of course I remember. That was the first time in thirteen years that I had seen you. I remember ever single moment of that.”

“I rather wish you hadn’t,” Harry muttered under his breath, startled when both Sirius and Remus raised an eyebrow this time.

“And why would that be?” Remus asked while Harry gaped at them.

“How’d you hear me?”

“He is a werewolf and I am a dog Animagus. Our hearings are better than most,” Sirius explained with a shrug before he looked thoughtful. “That is probably why I heard that whale of a relative of yours bellow from several streets away.”

“I bet he’d be mortified by that. He always tries to yell at me only indoors so the neighbours won’t hear it,” Harry snorted.

“I’d say he rather failed at that. I wonder how many others were just as curious as I was after his words.”

Flushing Harry looked down at his cup. If he was honest then he’d have to admit he didn’t clearly remember just exactly what Uncle Vernon had yelled at him that night. But knowing the man like he did it probably hadn’t been anything nice.

“I’m not entirely sure what it was that he yelled at me. He’s usually yelling so I automatically delete it once he’s done and I was rather angry that night,” he finally admitted.

“I gathered that from both your expression and the shrieking human balloon that flew around in the sky,” Sirius laughed.

Feeling himself colour Harry ducked his head low even as Remus frowned.

“You blew up your aunt?”

“Not his aunt. At least, I don’t think it was Petunia,” Sirius shook his head.

“You know my aunt?” Harry asked perplex.

“Met her once or twice at your parent’s house when your grandparents visited.”

“You knew my grandparents too?” shocked Harry looked at him.

He’d known that Sirius had known his father’s parents. But never in a million years would he have expected his godfather to have known both sets.

“Knew is a big word pup. I only met then a handful of times, mostly at Christmas and when James dragged me along to their funerals to keep him from making a fool out of himself.”

Chuckling at the pained expression on his godfather’s face Harry nodded, not surprised to learn of their deaths. He’d already known his grandparents had passed away because the Dursley’s visited the grave once a year.

“Was Dad that bad at the funeral then?” he asked curiously.

Sirius shook his head. “No, he was just very nervous to do things wrong because he knew so little about Muggles he believed I could help him fit in since I had actually taken Muggle Studies.”

“Did you?”

“Sort off. But we are getting off track, you still haven’t answered my question,” leaning forward in his chair he rested his arms on the kitchen table, folding his fingers around his cup as his grey eyes stared at Harry.

Swallowing Harry shifted, leaning back into it with a sigh.

“I’d rather not answer that question at all,” he finally admitted after a long moment of silence.

“Why not?” Remus’ voice was soft, entering the conversation again as he unconsciously mimicked Sirius’ position.

Biting back a smile at the action he looked at the two friends, somehow not feeling uncomfortable under their gazes.

Perhaps it was because he knew the two didn’t see him at the “Boy-Who-Lived” at all, or because he knew they both cared about him. He didn’t know the exact reasons, but both men made him feel comfortable and safe, despite their stares.

But just because he was comfortable with then it didn’t mean he thought they’d stay calm if they found out what had happened. He hadn’t known them for very long yet, but he believed he knew them well enough to guess their reaction.

“Because I know for a fact that Sirius will get mad and I guess you’d be pretty angry too.”

“And why would we get angry?”

“What did she do that would piss us off?”

The different questions were asked at the same time and the two glanced at each other, silently communicating for a moment before they turned back to Harry.

“Answer the question Harry,” Remus was the one who spoke. His voice patient but with a firm tone to it, telling Harry it wasn’t up to negotiation.

“What was the exact question again?”

Smiling sheepishly at the eye roll his godfather gave him in response Harry shifted again.

“Why did you turn that woman into a human balloon?”

“How do you know that was me?” Harry retorted, trying to buy time.

Once more an eyebrow was raised, an action Harry was quickly beginning to identify with disbelief.

“You are the only magical person in the area. Arabella Figg is a squib so you can’t shove it off on her,” Sirius added before Harry could open his mouth. “And more importantly, I heard the whale below at you to “Come back and put her right,” he raised his fingers to mimic punctuation marks while saying the last few words.

“You heard that?”

“We already covered that part pup. Now answer and I solemnly swear I will not commit murder in a fit of anger.”

“You swear?” Harry asked, shooting Sirius a sceptical glance.

Sirius sighed. “I cannot promise I won’t get mad, but I do promise I won’t kill them. So why did you blow her up?”

“She insulted my parents,” Harry answered, aware that the promise was the most he would get. It would be unfair to ask Sirius not to get angry when he himself had done the same thing.

“Insulting them how?” Sirius asked in a low voice.

“I don’t remember the exact wording, but Aunt Marge kept going on for days, comparing Mum to a dog. She breeds dogs and everything is about them with her,” he explained quickly at the confusion.

“Anyway, she kept saying that bad blood always comes out and that and I quote ‘if there is something wrong with the bitch then there’ll be something wrong with the pup’ and...”

A loud crack cut Harry off and a low curse made him look up from his intensive staring at the table.

Sirius’ hand was bleeding as he pulled it away from his broken cup, clearly having smashed it in his grip as he gingerly pulled out a couple of glass charts that were stuck in his hand without more than a grimace. 

A quick wave of Remus’ wand healed the cuts immediately and Sirius Vanished the broken cup.

“How come you are both so good at healing spells?” Harry was awed, remembering how Sirius had easily healed his hurt hand several days before during their cleaning.

Sirius flexed his hands a few times after murmuring a low thanks while Remus answered offhandedly.

“Your dad and I learned strong healing spells early on at Hogwarts for whenever Sirius returned from forced vacations at home. He himself already knew many before he even came to Hogwarts.”

“Why...”

“Never mind that, what else did this Aunt Marge say?”

Cutting of Harry’s forming question off before he could complete it, Sirius stared at him.

Blinking Harry forced his thoughts to focus again. It was clear to him that Sirius didn’t want to talk about it. 

“Well, the Dursleys told everyone that my parents had died in a car crash and Aunt Marge called Dad a good for nothing, unemployed lazy scrounger. She never got the chance to finish as I kind of blew her up then.”

For a long moment the kitchen was deadly quiet and Harry was distractedly reminded of the late hour while he waited for the bomb to explode once their shock died down.

“Why a car crash?”

The question was so unexpected and asked so normally that Harry at first didn’t even register the question Sirius had asked.

“Sorry?”

“Why a car crash? Surely they’d understand that you’d never believe that? They’d have just Apparated away if they ever got into one.”

“Ah, I never knew anything about my parents being magical or magic in general before I got my letter.”

“They never told you anything?” Remus asked softly, but as Harry looked up to him he could see the barely contained anger on his face.

“Not surprising. Lily always did say how much her sister hated her and her magic. Though I am more curious to how they ever thought they’d keep it a secret. Surely you’ve had accidental magic growing up,” Sirius frowned.

Surprised Harry glanced at him. He hadn’t thought about it like that, but it did make sense that Sirius wouldn’t be surprised about why the Dursleys had never told him. The man had clearly paid attention whenever his mother had spoken about her sister. It also couldn’t be denied that for all his behaviour and recklessness, Sirius was anything but an idiot.

“Yeah, though I never could explain it and anything weird happening always got me locked into my cupboard for periods of time. Uncle Vernon always threatened that a good beating could beat the freakishness out of me.”

Immediately realising he had said too much he still startled when all the glasses and plates in the kitchen shattered in their cupboards with a loud crash.

Harry flinched as Sirius turned pale as a sheet and he clenched his hands in anger.

“They beat you?” his voice was soft as silk, but deadly cold, not paying the least bit of attention to the still ongoing crashes as the shards fell and Remus shifted slightly away from his friend, clearly feeling the waves of anger Sirius was starting to radiate.

“No, he never laid a hand on me. Aunt Petunia threw a pan at me once but they mostly locked me into my cupboard and denied me food for punishments,” Harry hurried to explain. “You promised you wouldn’t kill them!”

Alarmed he jumped up as Sirius swiftly rose from his seat.

“I’m not; killing them would be too easy. I am going to kill that fool of a headmaster of yours and then I am going to strip pieces of skin from your relatives. What was that moron thinking in placing you there?”

“Probably as much as you were when you went after Peter. He must have had his reasons,” Remus was clearly trying to reign in his own anger and look at things logically, though Harry wasn’t entirely sure how much he was succeeding in that.

“Yeah, Mum’s sacrifice protects me as long as I live in her sister’s house. Dumbledore didn’t explain it all but he hammered that into me,” Harry tried to calm Sirius down because he could do something he might regret.

Suddenly Sirius turned to him, “How did your Aunt treat you?”

Taking a step back at the sudden movement and the murderous expression on his godfather’s face he blinked.

“She hated my guts. Mostly treated me either like a House Elf or like I didn’t exist. Why?”

A string of curses that turned Harry’s face bright red and had even Remus flushed was his only answer as Sirius turned once more.

“Go back to bed Harry. I have to talk to Dumbledore and you have lost enough sleep as it is,” he patted Harry on the head before swiftly walking towards the living room, clearly intent to use the fireplace there.

Alarmed Harry turned to Remus.

“Do as he says. I’ll make sure he doesn’t kill anyone.”

“You promise that?” Harry asked, debating between ignoring his godfather and trying to stop him or making sure to stay as far away as possible.

“I promise you that I will do my best,” Remus answered, squeezing his shoulder and guiding him to the stairs before following Sirius into the living room, closing the door behind him.

Standing before the stairs for a long moment he wondered how wanting to get something to drink could have turned in such chaos. 

Sighing he began to make his way upstairs, not daring to eavesdrop on the two. But he did keep his ears open as he crawled back into bed. As he heard no sound aside from Ron’s loud snoring he relaxed a little, hoping Remus had managed to calm Sirius down a little.

The next thing he became aware of was being shaken awake by a familiar voice.

“Hey Harry,” the voice of Fred drifted to him as he groggily opened his eyes, blinking up to the blurry image of a Weasley twin.

“What?” he asked as he accepted the glasses handed to him and sat up, noticing Ron was still out cold and a quick glance at the clock told him it was still rather early. 

“What happened last night?” One of the two asked and it took Harry’s sleepy mind a moment to realise it was George who had spoken.

“What? How do you know?” he asked alarmed.

“We weren’t eavesdropping. But it wasn’t hard to deduce something had happened that involved you,” Fred admitted cheekily.

“How so?”

“It was rather had to miss the yelling,” George said.

“Not that we aren’t used to yelling.”

“But it was surprising.”

“When we realised who it was who was yelling.”

“Never knew he had it in him, did you my dear Fred?”

“Not a clue.”

Trying to follow the twin’s unique speech pattern he frowned as their words soaked through.

“Who was Sirius yelling at?”

“Not Sirius, though he raise his voice quite a bit too.”

“Not Sirius?” confused Harry frowned again.

“Remus.”

“Remus?” 

“Yes, we couldn’t precisely hear what he was yelling about though.”

“We wanted to grab our special ears to learn more.”

“But then we heard your name being mentioned.”

“And we didn’t want to intrude on your privacy.”

“But we did hear that they took turns in raising their lovely voices at a third person involved.”

Harry looked at the two, who for once actually looked slightly guilty and a wave of gratitude washed over him at the knowledge they had let slide for his dignity and privacy.

“Thanks. Who were they yelling at?”

“Dumbledore.”

“We assume that since he was there. Anyway, when we tried to go downstairs Remus stopped us.”

“He asked us to fetch you because they wanted to speak to you before everyone else woke up.”

“You better hurry though; Sirius didn’t look all that far from hexing Dumbledore again.”

“He hexed Dumbledore?” Harry throw the covers off of him and quickly dressed, washing could wait for now.

“Sure looked like it. Could be Remus too....”

“But our bet is on Sirius.”

“Good luck,” they chorused as Harry quickly brushed past them and rushed downstairs.

Taking a deep breath to calm down he opened the kitchen door and stepped through, expecting the worst.

However, he was surprised at what awaited him.

Sirius was clearly making some breakfast while Remus leaned against the counter beside him, sipping from a cup he had to have fixed earlier.

No big surprise there, however the Headmaster’s position at the kitchen table was.

The man looked absolutely terrible. 

He was holding a piece of cloth against an eye that was quickly turning back, his lip was cut and bloody and his whole messy and shaken appearance screamed that he’d been in a battle.

The pieces of a broken wand stuck out of his robes, a bruised and swollen hand carefully touching them as if he was pained by the event.

Quickly glancing back at his favourite men to check them for wounds he was relieved that they seemed completely fine.

He progressed all of this in the time it took for Sirius to move to him and gently lead him to sit at the kitchen table, on the far side away from Dumbledore.

Harry didn’t miss Dumbledore’s flinch at Sirius’ movement, but chose to ignore it in favour of bigger questions.

“What happened to you, sir?” he asked politely as Remus sat down on his right, effectively blocking both of Harry’s sides from immediate access.

Dumbledore sighed, removing the piece of cloth to indeed reveal a harsh black eye as he turned his attention to Harry.

“I was foolish enough to act on my....failure to see some people’s true nature,” the man answered cryptically and Harry blinked.

“What?”

“Your godfather has made it...painfully clear what he thought about my....meddling...into your safety and life,” Dumbledore seemed to search for the words and he glanced at Harry’s left with what seemed to Harry as nervousness.

“He did?” he guessed that answered the question of who had roughened Dumbledore up and Harry couldn’t stop the awe at his godfathers ability to make a man as powerful as Dumbledore nervous.

“What I mean is that we have had a long conversation last night and some facts were made known to me that I had not taken into consideration. You must forgive me Harry, but I truly did what I thought was the best in the situation.”

“That is a load of bull,” Sirius interrupted and to Harry’s amusement Dumbledore immediately flinched back at the harsh tone.

“What the meddling fool is trying to tell you that in his stupidity he failed to account that some people don’t change,” Sirius’ glare in the headmaster’s direction was positively terrifying and so powerful that even Harry felt the need to shift back a little.

The expression softened as Sirius turned his attention back to Harry and he placed a comforting hand on his arm, as if sensing Harry’s discomfort.

“Those blood wards he spoke off?” Sirius waited for Harry’s nod before continuing.

“They are worthless.”

“But....”

Raising his other hand to quiet him, Harry immediately fell silent, not finishing his interrupting.

“Let me finish first pup. In the beginning they might have held a tiny bit of power due to the shared blood between you and your aunt. Barely I might add, because your mum’s sacrifice was based upon love and as there was anything but that for you in that dreadful house I recon it is a miracle they ever worked.”

Sirius glared at Dumbledore for a moment again; making the much older man swallow thickly, before shifting his gaze back to Harry again.

“But they did however slightly that may be....until Voldemort took your blood to resurrect. The little protection you had back then failed completely, because now he shared that protection.”

“What?! But that means....” Harry felt his head spin.

If those blood wards were so weak and even none existing since last June then it was a miracle no Death Eaters had located him during the time he spend at Privet Drive this summer.

“Exactly. Not only were you miserable there for absolutely no good reason, you were also in grave danger for the entire time you were there this summer. Which was proven when those Dementors found you,” Remus spat out in anger and Harry turned to him in surprise, never having heard anger like that in the normally calm man’s voice before.

“We...spoke...to Dumbledore about this after Sirius realised that those blood wards couldn’t possibly work if the Dursleys hated you so much. And he’s made it clear that he expects full custody over you immediately.”

“But he’s a fugitive. He can’t take custody over me, isn’t that the whole reason why Dumbledore has been calling the shots in the first place?” Harry asked bewildered.

He refused to let the small shimmer of hope that tried to enter his mind take hold of him. He had his hopes shot down before and had absolutely no illusions that it would be different this time.

Dumbledore had probably found another reason to let him stay at the Dursleys anyway.

“That is where it gets a little confusing and I will not bore you with the complete details of what was said, but it comes down to the fact that it had never been his call,” Remus glanced at Sirius.

“I had it filed what I wanted to happen to you if I were to die or otherwise be unable to take care of you. The only reason I didn’t hex him the moment I found out he didn’t follow my wishes is because he ensured me you were well cared for and happy.”

“But I wasn’t happy. I have never been happy at the Dursleys,” Harry felt anger build up and was unable to completely banish it from his tone.

“As we learned yesterday. You never really spoke about those Muggles before so I had no clear idea it was so bad. Though I should have known, you were way to ready to move in with a complete stranger when we first met. But I was so overjoyed by your reaction that I didn’t think clearly about how strange it was.”

Sirius looked torn between anger and despair for a moment before his expression turned troubled and he moved his hand from Harry’s shoulder to take both of his hands in his own.

“I cannot take custody of you while being on the run and the Ministry would never agree to follow my original back up plan of placing you in Remus’ care.”

The little ray of hope that had automatically filled him, despite his precaution, immediately vaporised at his godfathers words. He had known it would be taken from him, but it still didn’t stop him from being hurt by it anyway.

“So I have to return to the Dursleys,” he muttered unhappily, looking down at their hands.

“Yes. As far as the Ministry is concerned that is where you are still living. Which means that you need to keep quiet wherever you are about where you truly live.”

His head shot up at his godfather’s words, staring at the slowly spreading smile of his lips.

“You mean....”

“That you are coming to life here with me and Remus, in our unofficial custody.”

“I don’t have to return to the Dursleys? I can stay with the two of you?” Harry had to ask carefully as he looked into the handsome face of his godfather before glancing at Remus’ smile.

“Not if you don’t want to,” Sirius gave him the choice.

“And he won’t stop you?” Harry nodded to Dumbledore, who had remained remarkably quiet during it all.

“He’s never been your guardian so he really has no say in the matter,” Sirius’ tone was dangerous and Dumbledore swallowed again.

“Sirius is your guardian and as long as you don’t speak of where you are actually saying I...have no hold over it nor can I argue,” he sighed.

“Not if he doesn’t want Sirius to beat him up again,” Remus added with a glare. “Or me to add a few hexes of my own.”

“You both did that to him?”

“He tried to chance our minds,” Sirius growled.

“Like we’d ever let him come between us again,” Remus snorted.

They reminded him eerily of the Weasley twins for a long moment and Harry smiled, completely ignoring Dumbledore’s presence.

“So what do you think pup? Would you like to come live with us?” 

Not bothering to answer such a stupid question Harry flung himself at his godfather and Remus, topping over Sirius’ chair and landing them all on the floor in a pile of limbs.

Both men tightened their hold on him as they hugged him between them and Harry too tightened his grip on the two men he cared more for than anyone else.

After finally untangling themselves after a long moment all three were beaming.

“When can I move in?” Harry cheered, ignoring Dumbledore slowly backing away towards the fireplace now the two Marauders weren’t focused on him anymore.

“Do you have any belongings left at the Dursleys?” Sirius asked and Harry quickly shook his head.

“Then you are moving in as soon as you’ve picked yourself a room.”

“I can pick my own room?” surprised Harry watched the two men laugh.

“Of course. We’ll clean it out while you are at Hogwarts, then at Christmas you can come home and we’ll decorate it to your liking,” Sirius frowned at Harry’s dazzled expression. “What?”

“Home...I’ve never come home before,” his voice was small as he shifted shyly before the two men.

The calculated expression Sirius shot him confused him as he was unable to decipher it, but he followed him into the hallway as the man took his hand and pulled him with him, Remus following them confused.

“Stand on the front step, count to thirty and then move back inside,” Sirius ordered in a tight voice as he opened the front door.

Bewildered Harry did as asked and Remus and Sirius took a step back to give him room to re enter the house.

Staring at them in utter confusion he slowly counted to thirty, secretly thinking Sirius had finally lost it before he noticed Remus’ confusion made way for amusement as his godfather whispered something in his ear.

Reaching thirty he stepped back inside again, closing the door behind him. Not sure what to expect from his unpredictable godfather he turned around again.

“Welcome home Harry,” they said in union.

Shocked he stared as the two beamed at him with expression so full of happiness and love that Harry couldn’t swallow the tight knot that had formed in his throat suddenly.

Realising just what Sirius had done and what they’d just said, Harry didn’t bother to push the tears that come up down as he all but flung himself at the two again, once more being pulled into a combined hug with ease.

“I’m home,” he whispered as tears slid down his cheeks, but for the first time he was not ashamed of them. For he knew they were tears of joy and the two men wrapped around him wouldn’t think any less of him for them.

For the first time, he was home.

**Author's Note:**

> I am aware that in the book Aunt Marge never left the dining room, for this idea to work I took the words from the book, but the scene from the movie.
> 
> On HP Wiki it is mentioned that Lily’s parents died somewhere before their daughter did. I don’t know how, though it is believed they died in “normal Muggle circumstances”
> 
> There is no proof that Sirius truly knew them, I just like to think he did.   
> I also do not know if Sirius followed Muggle Studies, but seeing as he owns a motor cycle and has pictures of Muggle girls in his teenage room I think he might have.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the story. Reviews are always appreciated and loved.


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